The 3 Greatest Pieces of Art Created in an Office Cubicle

Just about everyone has worked with an office cubicle artist at some point in their career. These are the folks who are able to do their jobs, usually better than their colleagues, while also creating some of the most stunning pieces of artwork you’ve ever seen, both in and out of the office. Often, they do this without any real artistic implements, using only office supplies to bring their vision to life.

They are not human, in other words, but they are valuable members of the corporate team. Without these folks, we’d have nothing but Successories to sustain us through our humdrum daily routines — a truly ghastly thought. Below, you’ll find some of the most impressive pieces of art we’ve ever found in an office.

Anecdotally, we’d have to say that most people who make art in their cubicle are in some way related to the graphic design department. Which is what makes Bill Taylor all the more amazing. A data manager at Rho, a clinical research firm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Taylor decided to use his spare time to create these intricate whiteboard drawings. Terrifyingly, they are done in dry-erase marker, which means that he probably also realizes another benefit of his artistic expression: His coworkers are likely too terrified to hang around his cubicle and harass him about those TPS reports. Who would want to be the person to accidentally rub against one of these drawings?

Taylor spends two to five minutes a day on his drawings, and wipes them down when he’s finished.

“I only have the one whiteboard so I don’t really have the option of saving them if I want to do another one,” says Taylor. “There is something I really like about how temporary it is and even though each one gets erased, I still have the practice and knowledge I gained in executing it.”

Last year, a group of French office workers started competing with one another to make the most interesting designs on their windows and walls, using only Post-It Notes. So far, we vote for Marilyn — or this creepy storm trooper.

We’re admittedly stretching a point including this office supply masterpiece. Artist Gary Ponzo was not biding his time in a cubicle when he designed and created this chandelier out of 4,000 paperclips. However, take a look at this and tell us that you aren’t tempted to try to make one yourself, the next time you’re waiting on other team members to get back to you so that you can complete a project.

So far, Ponzo has made a dozen of these things, which take him about six weeks apiece. If you get started now, we figure you’ll have figured out how to make one by the time the company holiday party rolls around again.